▪ The city name
al-Raqqaẗ is from †
raqqaẗ (pl.
riqāq) ‘land regularly flooded by a river’,
1
obviously on account of its marshy surroundings; cf. also
†ruqāq ‘shallow water, low sea’. With this, the name is akin to ↗
raqqa ‘(to be\come) thin, soft’ (sc. referring to the ‘thin’ layers of ‘soft’ soil that covers flooded land).
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